YOU CAN HEAR A SMILE :)

Nearly a week ago, I was dressed for winter, wearing a scarf, a really long padded coat topped off with woolly hat and gloves, this being de rigeur for staying warm outdoors.  We were having a few days where the temperatures descended, one day, reaching the unexpected depth of 7.5 degrees Celsius, (45.5 Fahrenheit).  It sleeted; on high ground it snowed and occasionally, after a short let up, hailstones descended upon us.  At least, whatever dropped from the sky dropped vertically.  It was way past the middle of May......... Confused? My body clock was. I refused to wear boots, that is, unless I got so cold I could not bear to have a bit of exposed upper foot, (covered in a thick sock).  The trouser hems did a good additional job of protecting them, and I got through the day without crunching through the psychological barrier of putting boots on.

Snowdrops

Imagine, then, my surprise when speaking to a friend in London UK,  on the 28th May 2013,  a week after our mid-May Winter weather experiences, hearing her say virtually the same things about the weather there in London, which is hundreds of miles further south from where I live in the North.  In London it was about 8 degrees Celsius, (46.4 F) she said, and she had put on her boots!   I couldn't help it, I  commiserated with a smile at my end of the phone.....she said she could 'hear' it.   I admitted to it. However, I did say to her..... It's blowing a gale here, but, it is lovely and sunny, and I think the temperature is due to rise to a high of about 12 degrees Celsius, (53.6 F).  I have never had a weather conversation like this between here and London UK, so many hundreds of miles south, where, at this time of the year, the weather is always warmer; it was upsidedown,  so deliciously perverse.

It was pleasant being out  today, wearing a light fleece and sandals.   You could have knocked me down with a feather, when, according to the temperature gauge it reached 17.5 Celsius, 
(63.5 F).  The wind chill must have made it feel cooler.  

Tonight, as I look out of my open window I see it is still bright, there is a golden glow suspended around us as far as the eye can see.  The fierce winds seem to have subsided, the branches of the few trees that there are, are fairly still.  I can hear a bird sing, it is sweet.  Sheep and their sturdy lambs are grazing leisurely in the nearby fields.